Semi-censured stream of consciousness

Yangshuo

2011-12-10T19:34:00.001+08:00

Off the bus at Yangshuo, ignored the hordes of taxi drivers, and found my way to West Street. Holy hell it was busy! Managed to find the alleyway that had the hostel I had decided on, checked in and had a walk around.

So many bars! And stalls, and people! The immediate scenery however, was amazing. Canals down most streets, karst peaks everywhere you looked, and lovely parks. I had some street food, then headed back to the hostel and what became a nightly ritual, the rooftop bar. Cheap drinks, friendly and talkative staff,, a view over the river and nearby peak, and a decent number of other travelers to talk to. Bingo. After about three months of hectic travel and sightseeing, I decided to take a few days to just relax and have a holiday.

A few walks around the city, the nearby palk, down the Li river from Yangdi, and even a scooter ride around the nearby attractions. Stunning sights everywhere. However, on the scooter I did manage to hit a very large pothole and come undone. A visit to a local clinic and I had a very large bandage on my head for several days, followed by a very large scab, and even today a noticeable scar. Fun times!

However, the most memorable part of Yangshuo was the drinking. The rooftop bar shut at about midnight, so I would venture down to the now near empty streets and seek out other bars. The first night I ended up going to some random bar that I couldn't find again on subsequent nights, but where I did learn to play a popular dice game with the bar staff (neither of whom spoke very much English, so I was quite chuffed with myself). The main bar I spent most of my mornings at was Kaya bar, which was open until VERY late, run by very friendly staff, and was constantly pumping out reggae tunes. I met more than a couple of scoundrels at that bar :).

After about 5 days in paradise I was ready to move on. Booked a flight from Guilin to Kunming, said my goodbyes to the local bar staff, and got on a bus back to Guilin.

Guilin

2011-12-10T19:10:00.000+08:00

I've decided to take the day off from writing, so I've got some time to do some writing! Herein lies my recollection of visiting Guilin.

The internet fora suggested to look out for a popular scam where the bus driver drops you off well away from the official bus stop for Guilin, and his taxi driver mates then charge you exorbitant fees to take you the rest of the way. Being wary of this, I put up a fuss when the driver dropped us off on the side of the highway, with no bus station in sight. Two Chinese girls also got off with me and asked me where I was going. A phone call later and one of them was escorting me on the local bus to my hostel!

After seeing me to my hostel, my guide waved goodbye and I checked in. Showered, changed my clothes, sought out the washing machine, then headed off into the night.

A pleasant walk down to the city centre, but I had trouble finding a beer at a decent price. There were also a lot of touts around trying to direct me to their bars and massage parlors. One particularly adventurous tout started progressed rapidly from 'foot massage', to 'massage', 'lady massage', before yelling out 'SEX?!' as I was walking away. Amazing.

Walked around some more, down past the quite pretty river front, and then back to my hostel. I then sat down to do some writing, and organising my future travels. I was up until about 2 am talking to the hostel workers about where to go, how to get there, and also picking up some more Chinese language skills.

The next morning I stepped out and went to the 7 Star Park. A cheap bowl of noodles, then I set off. The park is HUGE, and I took most of the day walking around, up and down hills, avoiding monkeys, and marveling at the natural beauty. I then went to some more of the parks around the city, but got sick of paying to enter each one. A walk around the city, taking in more sights, before heading down to the temporary street markets.

The city was pretty, and the parks and water features were delightful, but it was a bit of a let down after all the hype I heard from Chinese people I'd talked to before arriving. I decided to cut my stay short, and get on a bus to Yangshuo. At the bus station I was a bit confused, as the gate written on the ticket wasn't the correct one. An ex-pat Australian found me and directed me to the correct gate where he was also going. Had a chat, then boarded a full but comfortable bus. Nap time.

FengHuang

2011-06-04T17:10:00.001+08:00

'Where are you going next? Oh Fenghuang, the old city, very beautiful'

6 hours on a bus, checking every time we went through a town whether we had arrived at Fenghuang. At some point a guy got on the bus and started speaking to everyone through a portable PA attached to his belt. 'Fenghuang' could be discerned a few times, then we didn't see a town for another half hour.

It was dark, I asked the person next to me if the place we had just stopped (not a bus stop) was Fenghuang. 'Yes, Fenghuang old city!'. Excellent.

I got out, fobbed off the taxi drivers, and looked into my Lonely Planet for where I wanted to stay. I then showed the street name to a nearby shop owner, who then had to consult with his wife. It was decided that the street was over the bridge right in front of us, then a right. Wrong.

I went around, sat down, got out my compass and stared at the map. I should point out that I was doing this next to a beautiful river running through the town, with a wooden footbridge providing a point of reference, and neon lights adorning all the surrounding buildings completely puzzling me. Anyway, I had to go across the river, then down to the city walls, and some alleyway.

Well I walked around quite a bit, down quite a few alleyways, then I finally found the alleyway I wanted (thanks to the compass, I only got lost once more). The guesthouse was full. I was going off to my second option when, on a whim, I stopped in to a guesthouse on the same alley as the first and asked to see their room. It didn't overlook the river, but had two comfortable beds, a sit down toilet, a decent shower, a computer, and it was clean. I think it was 40 yuan for one night, I was sold.

Card with a map of the guesthouse in hand I set off to explore this strange 'old town' that for some reason was lit up more brightly than Macau. Up, down, around, constantly looking at my map. A few skewers of meat, asked by the stall dude whether I was muslim, over a bridge, a few photos, then I needed a drink.

The place was pretty packed with tourists, and there were quite a few bars. However, every single bar I went into ended up being for freaking kareoke. Given some artificial clappers, the crowd went nuts at everyone that dared get up and sing. I was tricked more than a couple of times by bars that had live bands playing. The live bands were there to play for the kareoke.

Bar hopping around, I walked up one street, near where the bus dropped me off, and past a hotel. A young lass rushed up to me and asked me if I wanted a massage. From the groping gestures she made with her hands, I suspected it wasn't a foot massage that she was offering. I begged off and went to find a bar with some decent music. I didn't find one.

On the walk back to the guesthouse (about 1 am), I passed many very drunk Chinese kids. The place was packed with Chinese kids, either in relationships, or looking to pick up. Anyway, a few of these kids made use of the nearby river to purge themselves, and I chuckled at them all the way back to my room.

In the morning I got up and decided I needed to know how the hell to get out of the town to Guilin. First taxi, 20 yuan. Steep, but I didn't know where the hell I was going. The bus station he dropped me off at claimed no knowledge of buses to Guilin, and after about 30 minutes of miming, I managed to get them to write down where I needed to go. Next taxi, 30 yuan! There were no other taxis in sight, nor any bus stops (near a bus station, I know), so I growled and got in. He did take me to the correct bus station, and I was able to buy a ticket for a bus to Guilin, departing the following morning.

Sick of taxis I decided to walk it back. Into a chemist and I pointed at my map, the ground, the bus station, general circles, but all I could get were questions on where I wanted to go. I eventually pointed to the centre of town, and they pointed me down the hill. Ten minutes later I was pretty much lost and hailed the next taxi I saw. This lady actually used the meter, and the trip cost me 3 yuan. For the rest of the day I swore at every taxi driver that accosted me.

Walked around the town, very quaint, pretty, beautiful river. Especially nice without all the LED strip lighting on every building lit up. Throngs of tourists (the vast majority domestic, I saw two Westerners my entire time in the town). I took a tout up on her offer of a boat ride for 30 yuan. Off down to the river, and on further some more, then into a boat where I was the only passenger. Pleasant ride down the river, with tourists in other boats waving and yelling hello at me all along the way. Half way, we stopped at a warehouse that was selling some fruit flavoured liquors. I tasted a couple, then the boat captain/driver/dude grabbed me, filled up two cups with some clear liquid, and gave me one. He downed about half of his in one go and smiled at me. I smelled it, a definite aroma of methylated spirits, and had a sip. God awful. I smiled, had a gulp, nodded when he gestured to his throat, then bought a gourd of the stuff so as not to look like a pussy. Sunk the rest of the death drink on the boat. Blergh.

Slightly tipsy, I got a human tuk-tuk ride back to the centre of town. I walked around the town for a while, getting lost occassionally. At some point I busted through to an entirely different area, with lots of other people, and interesting buildings. There was also a square with the same strange organised aerobics that I had seen previously in other cities. Wandered around some more, then my meat bag decided to impose itself on me. Time for dinner.

I popped into one little place that looked quite nice. I stood around, walked up to the staff, then followed one around for what felt like an eternity. They looked at me, then buggered off. I was about to leave when a customer pointed to a table, yelled at the staff, pointed at the table, yelled some more, then told me to please sit down. A waitress (she couldn't have been older than 12 years old) came up to me with a menu. I pointed at something at random and waited. She came back later, apparently they didn't have that. I pointed at something else, which they did have. Excellent. Also a beer, which was apparently hard to decide what to do with (I had to choose between the two they stocked).

In the end I had a quite nice, and very large, bowl of tiny shrimp in a chilli sauce, and some rice. During my meal a few customers got into a heated discussion with the owner. I don't think I chose the most reliable of resturaunts. Anyway, I paid, and left.

On my way back, I heard 'Anil!'. Looking around I saw the two ladies who helped me out on the train to Zhangjiaje. We chatted, then they introduced me to all their friends. I walked with them for a while, then decided I needed to sleep. Photo, back to bed, packed, slept.

The next morning I got a taxi to the bus station. The guy wanted 20 yuan, I said no and pointed to the meter, 3 yuan later I was at the bus station. Off to Guilin!

Zhangjiajie

2011-04-28T20:04:00.000+08:00

After around half an hour on the train I asked a lady if she knew how long it was to Jishou. About 5 am apparently. Rapture.

The lady and her friend then hassled me for a while asking where I was going, and why I was going to Jishou. After a while the language barrier intervened and they relented. I double checked my Lonely Planet, and the line that I remembered stating that there was no banks in Zhangjiajie actually said that there was no money changers in Zhangjiajie village (and went on to name the banks in the city).

I then went to the ladies and asked if I could pay extra and just carry on to Zhangjiaje. After a bit, they explained that Zhangjiajie is actually the stop before Jishou, which explains their wonder at me going to Jishou. I decamped at Zhangjiajie at 4 am.

With time to on my side, I ignored all the taxi drivers and searched the buses to get into the city. Some half an hour later I relented and went to the taxis. I got them down from 20 to 15 yuan. However, half way there the guy started up. He even rang the hostel to get them to talk to me. 20 yuan it was, but only after a lot of shouting. The driver did call up the hostel when I got there to ask the receptionist to come down and get me, so I guess that was nice?

Checked in at 5 am, set alarm for 8.30 am, got out of bed at 11 am. Oh well. Laundry, a new pair of trousers (from a supermarket, 100 yuan), and travel plans through to Guilin. I also got a shave with the world's most blunt cut-throat razor. Two people and about half an hour later the job was done, and pretty smooth it was. 5 yuan, but I would have paid more for a sharp razor (and less pain).

Into the park, I started walking up a peak. I then saw the route the cable cars were taking and quickly changed my mind. Up beautiful ride and I was up the top, and cursed with a thick fog, and some rain. However, on the other side of the peak the air was clear and the view took my breath away. I actually shed a couple of tears of joy, I cannot express highly enough how beautiful the scenery is.

Rushing through the hordes of tour groups, I went along the Golden Whip Stream, and up to the walk to Yangjiajie where I was spending the night. I was told it would take about an hour. It took two. I was also told that there wasn't another way up there, there is an escalator further up the Golden Whip Stream. I also wasn't told that the walk up is basically and ascent of the entire fucking mountain range.

In the end I got there, sweat pouring off me, and with aching calves. Letting out a shout of YES! I then ambled up the road to try and find a bus. The first lot of buses were going the wrong way (to the escalator), but was told to wander up a further 200 metres to the next station. There a lovely lady tried to get me and four others on any bus, but an officious fuckwit started shouting at her and ordered us to wait for the next bus. Next bus came, was crowded, and just sat there as a group of about 15 drivers stood around chatting and smoking. I just got up and left. One of the drivers yelled at me to get back on the bus, I didn't even respond, and just walked out. About 40 minutes later (and having a procession of around 10 buses pass me in about two minutes (that's some pretty good scheduling, you fucks) I got to the hostel! Shower and a beer, and I was asleep by 9 pm.

The next day involved a bus driver taking me to the wrong town, and another once dropping me off at the wrong stop. Apparently none of them understand the road maps I point at. Again the scenery was spectacular, and my fear of heights was becoming more manageable, but the 'One Step to Heaven' peak was still terrifying. I then went on another trail, which I thought was meant to take me on a loop back the hostel. Wrong.

Each step down, I reminded myself was a step I'd having to take back up. Thinking that it couldn't be THAT long I completed the trail. It ended back down the bottom of the range, I had to climb the fucking thing again! Oh, and it was also getting dark.

The first few people that saw me climbing up expressed alarm and tried to convince me to turn back. I was not to be deterred. I was making good speed, despite the howls from my calves, and thought I was about half way up 20 minutes in. Bzzzzt. After about an hour (so half the time of the previous day, thanks to not having my backpack on) I got to near the top, recognising a place name from my map, and managed to buy a bottle of water (I had run out about 30 minutes prior). Just then two sedan chair dudes came down and asked me to go for a ride. The quickly talked themselves down to 30 yuan, and I gave in. After about 10 minutes of an extremely bumpy ride they dropped me off near the road. One of them then asked me for another 10 yuan, intimating that I was fatter than he thought at first. Cheeky bastard, I walked off, through the developing rain, in the dark, back to the hostel (another 30 minutes).

The final day I got a bus up to the top of the area, and started descending down the mountain. A young Chinese guy started talking to me, and eventually followed next to me all the way down. I think he was happy to practice his English (which was pretty good). At the end, he helped me get a bus ticket to Funghuang, and then stuck around. Something about helping to the end. After about 30 minutes I managed to convince him and his friend that they really should leave, and I was left alone to drink some beer, write, and reflect on the amazing beauty I had witnessed in the previous three days.

Nanling National Park / Mt DanXia / HengShan

2011-04-28T20:01:00.000+08:00

Wuzhishan/Nanling National Park

Trains are easy to catch. You go to the counter, buy a ticket, go to the gate, show your ticket, and board. Buses however do follow a multitude of routes, written in a foreign script.

In the transit stop of Shaoguan I ended up getting a taxi to the other bus station, where thankfully there was a ticket counter. Some hours later I arrived at Wuzhishan.

The hotel (Orange House) was quite nice, but a little basic. I stayed in the ranger's housing out the back, with a triple all to myself. I spent a day and a half walking around the trails up the mountains. Very pretty, but there was construction workers everywhere! They were upgrading the trails I was walking on, and the sounds of masonry saws was a little off-putting.

Definitely pretty, but skippable.

Mount DanXia

Looking for stuff to do around Shaoguan on the internet, I found Mount Danxia was highly recommended by fellow travellers, and a shortish bus ride from Shaoguan. Bus back to Shaoguan, worked out how to catch buses (write down Chinese characters for where you want to go and just show that to people), then on to Mount Danxia.

A tout grabbed me and took me to his hotel. I was walking off and he dropped the price to 70 yuan (from 100). I thought it was still overpriced, but check out was 4.30 pm the next day so not too bad after all.

Into the park, it very striking, but a fair bit of fog. And oh my shit, the heights! Scrambling up narrow and impossibly steep trails is one thing, getting back down is an entirely different proposition. I did overcome my fear, one step at a time, but it took a lot of effort. I also noticed that I was completely living in the moment, nothing like the fear of imminent death to focus the mind.

At one point a family of yokels all were taken with me, insisting on photo after photo in my presence. That got a tad annoying so I sat by an idyllic lake and let them go on ahead. This was only the start of people wanting to have photos taken with me, in every place I have been since. I pose, and the universe delivers others unto me at later times, eager to help me figure out where the fuck I am. It's not all bad.

HengShan

It was not to be. After saying 'Hengshan', the kid behind the counter at the rail station looked quizzical (an aside, he had very long and manicured fingernails, which matched a description in Anna Karenina I had read the previous night). I pointed to the Chinese characters of Hengshan and he exclaimed 'ahh, Shenghan!' exactly the same way I had just said it! Ticket in hand I boarded the train. About 15 minutes later I noticed that the ticket said Hengyuan. Fucker!

A nice lady, who had a toddler that was enamoured with my beard, helped me out told me that there were no buses from Hengyuan to Hengshan at that time of night. She organised a taxi, but that was going to be 170 yuan, I balked. Up to the train station, and after a while of wandering around a young lady came up and helped me find the ticket station. Train to Hengshan left at 3am. 'Fuck!' I muttered, to the amusement of a couple of bystanders. I then decided to try Jishou, on my way to Zhangjiajie. I forgot to check what time it was getting in, and boarded a 21 carriage train to find my crowded hard sleeper.

Shenzhen/Guangzhou

2011-04-28T19:58:00.000+08:00

Shenzhen

A ride on the train from Mong Kok, and shortly later I was in the PRC. Quickly through customs, I caught the metro to an electronics shopping mall to buy a laptop. It was a bit hard to find, but I got there in the end. It is quite impressive, electronic components of almost imaginable variety on sale by a variety of vendors. Hungry, tired, and a little hung over, I struggled, and eventually saw a laptop that looked adequate. I am pretty sure all the other ones were one floor up, but I was beyond caring. The Sony Vaio knockoff booted my Ubuntu memory stick, and I paid 1280 yuan.

Back to the metro, then on to Guangzhou.

Guangzhou

What a shithole. I also got duped by some 'taxi bookers', who charged me about 4 times that actual cost of a taxi for a private car. They also told me that the metro would involve about 3 changes to get where I wanted. Lies. It was one line all the way! However I was tired, hungry, and grumpy, so just got into the car (after spending 10 minutes explaining where I wanted to go). The trip took about 30 minutes, and the fucker of a driver whinged at the end that he wanted more money because it was so far away. I bluntly said no and walked off.

Checked in, installed Ubuntu on the laptop only to find out that the power management does not work, so the battery only lasts 1 hour, and the machine hangs instead of shutting down. A new custom kernel should fix this, but pretty hard to do with the slow internet connectivity.

My first attempt to order food in the PRC ended with me accidentally ordered enough Mapo Doufu for a family of eight. Very tasty.

The city itself is incredibly polluted, and the haze/smog is visible within 10 metres. The river side is nice enough, but spoiled by the aforementioned pollution. Shamian Island is very pretty.

I also got a one hour chinese massage for my back and shoulders. This ended with me having a very sore neck for the next couple of days, but all the knots in my back were worked out.

Macau

2011-04-28T19:53:00.002+08:00

The old town of Macau is quite pretty, but my goodness the Portuguese could have tried building straight roads instead of settling for a cornucopia of twisting streets. There is, however, a lot of well used public squares (not square) dotted all over the place.

My fear of heights was tested by climbing to the top of the Ruins of Saint Paul's, and the Mount Fortress. Worth it for the views, but my heart was in my throat most of the time.

A free bus took me to The Venetian, which is an extraordinary place. The gaming floor is just like every other casino, but the indoor malls were sublimely kitsch. There was even a gondola ride (and the young ladies that operated them also sung the most angelic operatic odes). I was laughing almost constantly, drawing some very strange looks.

Another free bus to The Sands, boring. A bus that I thought was going to the ferry terminal ended up taking me to the north-west corner of the peninsula. A taxi ride later I was at the Grand Lisboa, a building which dominates the Macau skyline. I lost 500 Honk Kong in quick order, and went to the bar for a beer. This coincided with a free burlesque show, which was odd.

Across the road to Lisboa Casino, a bit run down, then a walk down the side streets. I was starting to feel a bit unsafe, so got a taxi to the ferry, and back to Hong Kong. Bought a free bottle of Glenfidich for about AUD20, not bad.

Hong Kong

2011-04-28T19:44:00.002+08:00

HOLY SHIT! After 16 hours in airports, aeroplanes, and trains I stepped out into the middle of Mong Kok. It felt like I had set foot inside a movie set. People and skyscrapers everywhere. Joy.

I got a crick in my neck from constantly staring up at all the beautiful skyscrapers, which also get lit up beautifully at night. The buzz his place is amazing, night markets running well past midnight, crowds everywhere, a superb metro, great street food, and a multitude of bars. There is also quite a few scenic parks and nature trails.

I could definitely see myself living in Hong Kong, if only there was a job here for someone with my skill set.

China - prolgoue

2011-04-23T21:04:00.000+08:00

Exhausted. Two to three weeks of twelve to sixteen hour days, trying to get all my lab work done. Mostly a success. Two in situ hybridisations have been left for Margaret to complete, and I'll have to spend a day or two taking photomicrographs when I get back. There is also a possibility of another week's lab work, supposing that the technique is nailed down by others first. But other than those niggling issues, done!

The day of my flight, and my nerves were jangling. Exhaustion, and a creeping sense of terror at the task ahead of me were making it very hard for me to pack. In the end, everything fit, and came to 10 kg. Not bad, not bad.

I am not allowed to drink my recently purchased alcohol on the flight to Singapore. Something about the Singaporese not allowing opened bottles, even on transit flights. Utter bollocks.

In Changi airport, magic train to T2. Avoided Burger King for breakfast (everything is turkey bacon), Subway mostly sufficed. Watched movie previews, an exercise in tedium, then decamped to a bar when Surfer Dude started showing. 3 hours to kill.

Food II

2010-08-29T18:25:00.000+08:00

Well the first week of my attempt at food frugality is up. Herein lies the report.

After some thought I decided to start off slow, eschew the ascetic $25 budget, and concentrate on eliminating food waste instead. A lift to the Subiaco Station Street Markets, and Woolworths, later I had spent $35.

Included was what I thought was a weeks worth of food. Bran cereal, two litres of milk, a lettuce, a bunch of English spinach, bag of tomatoes, three onions, bag of carrots, choy sum, potatoes, a dozen eggs, two 450 g cans of crushed tomatoes, a large handful of field mushrooms, a couple of apples, a couple of pears, a few bananas, five Kiwi fruit, and a whole chicken.

It started off smashingly, with a roast chicken and vegetables stretching out for three meals, and the remainder chicken thrown in to some leftover soup from some weeks earlier. Large amounts of salad were consumed, two fruit were eaten a day, carrots provided great snacks. Then it started to break down around Wednesday night.

I slept about four hours on each of Tuesday and Wednesday nights because of lab work and trying to get some reports done to apply for a completion scholarship. Thursday was around 10 hours of more report writing, and by that evening I needed a drink. Drinks were had, then pizza paid for and eaten. I slept through breakfast on Friday, and just Could Not Be Bothered with preparing a salad for lunch. Take away Curry Laksa was sourced, and dinner was mostly provided by The University. However, drinks were also provided, and eventually I paid for more pizza!

Saturday I slept through breakfast again, and was decidedly too hung over to be bothered with preparing food. A kebab was eaten around lunch time in between lab work. A service station meat pie was a late dinner. Today I once again slept through breakfast, less hung over, but in a rush to get to the lab. No lunch prepared, kebab it was. Tonight I aim to cook *something*.

A list of food that has as yet been uneaten is: all twelve eggs, two potatoes, three Kiwi fruit, a pear, an apple, an orange, about one salad's lot of lettuce and spinach, most of the bunch of choy sum, both cans of crushed tomatoes, half the bran cereal, one litre of milk, and half the carrots.

No trip to the markets was made this week, which is good as I've still got all that food to get through. All in all, I have missed or replaced meals with take-away nine times. Even withstanding the naughtiness, I still probably bought a little too much food. Next time around I'm going to try and buy a little less and see how that goes. I mean if I run out of food, there is always service station meat pies to tide me over.

Time management

2010-08-22T17:10:00.000+08:00

It has occurred to me lately that I spend an inordinate amount of time reading about current events and Australian politics; an amount of time that is not compatible with the time needs of everything else in my life.

I am toying with the idea of limiting my politics and current events reading to one contiguous hour a day. I believe this is doable, but will mean that I won't be able to read through the hundreds of comments on political blogs anymore. My trimmed reading list would then be:

Mostly daily

ABC News Online
Club Troppo
Crikey daily newsletter
Grog's Gamut
John Quiggin
Larvatus Prodeo
Meganomics
Paul Krugman
Peter Martin
The Political Sword
Politically Homeless
Possum Pollytics
Pure Poison
Sydney Morning Herald
The Stump
vexnews (mostly just the hilarious headlines)
Wonk News

Occasionally

I guess I should stop watching ABC News 24 so much as well.

Food

2010-08-15T18:34:00.000+08:00

I like eating. I like eating good, tasty food. However, I detest my biological urge to eat, and I do not like paying money for food. There is not much I can do about my first problem, however the second does have some recourse. Quite a few months ago I tried to eat on $4 a day. It was actually fairly easy, for the first two weeks.

To achieve the scale of cooking needed to reach such a miserly goal I resorted to cooking vats of food and freezing it down into portions. The majority of these meals were vegetable, lentil, and potato curries of different flavours. Eggs and free bread (thanks do David's brother) also made notable appearances. As noted above, this was fine for around two weeks. However, even having cooked around five different meals, variety became a problem. Furthermore, I discovered that frozen then microwaved rice doesn't have a very nice texture. I started leaving the regime for take-away food more, and more often.

Because my life seems to be governed by waves of apathy and enthusiasm, I am once again considering an ascetic diet. This time I expect it will still be mostly made up of vegetables, lentils, potatoes, and rice. In fact, I still have a bunch of rice and lentils left over from the last endeavour. I'm not sure how to overcome the tedium of such a diet, but I have some ideas that I think will help.

Salads (skeptical here, not cheap to make a decent tasting salad)
Noodles
Some meat, perhaps a roast chicken every week?
Tofu/tempeh
No frozen then reheated rice
Try and fit in some fruit into the budget

I'll think more this conundrum through the week, before I go shopping at the markets for cheap fruit, vegetables, eggs, and cereal. I'll also have to think up some way of making cheap and tasty lunch, because that's the most likely time I'm going to ditch the rigour and grab a burger instead.

Hell yeah!

2010-03-06T21:52:00.001+08:00

My old laptop was mostly still working post fall, everything except the hard drive and screen survived the plummet. I was planning on making the laptop into a home file server when I upgraded, the crash sped this process on somewhat.

So I had a 1 terabyte Western Digital 'green' drive that I wanted to pair with the laptop. First problem, the drive was too big. After a brief session with a hacksaw, and then a cordless drill, a space large enough to accommodate the beast was made, and it was plugged in. Huzzah!

Second problem, the laptop doesn't supply 12 V to its SATA interface. OK, cool, whatever. I'd just use an external hard drive caddy enclosure to power the hard drive, and a cable from the laptop's SATA controller straight to the hard drive for data.

Third problem, the laptop's SATA connector was female, so hard drives can slot straight in. Normal SATA cables are also female, so I needed a gender bender. Altronics and Jaycar had nothing suitable, and I eventually sourced a male SATA -> female SATA cable from an online store over east. Oh, it was $20 including postage and handling. For a fucking cable. Oh well.

Anyway the cable arrives, and my hodge podge setup works a treat! However I'm left with another hard drive left over from my old server, a 500 GB PATA one to be more precise. So I got to thinking that I should buy ANOTHER external hard drive caddy, one with an eSATA port for the SATA drive, and use the current caddy for the PATA drive. OK, another caddy bought, cool.

Fourth problem, my current gender bender cable didn't mate with an eSATA port. The pin-outs for SATA and eSATA are identical, but there is a little bit of extra plastic on the SATA cables. I removed the offending piece of plastic, and the cable slid in perfectly! Unfortunately, the consortium for some reason made the the pin spacing in eSATA and SATA connectors slightly different!

No worries, I've got a spare eSATA cable, I'll just chop one end off and wire on the male SATA connector from my other cable. I dutifully noted the orientation of the plugs with a marker pen, stripped back the rubber from the connector, and soldered the wires on (under a dissecting microscope). Woo. Anyway, I got home and plugged the connector into another cable and noticed it was wired on upside down!

Fifth problem, I broke the connector. After despairing for a second at the thought of having to resolder the connector I pulled the two cables apart. However, the plastic part of the male connector remained wed to the other cable and the pins came out, left dangling to the end of my freak cable. Another second of despair until I realised that I could put the pins back in, upside down, and the wiring would be correct!

A little bit of fiddling, the pins went in, the cable plugged into the laptop, and the eSATA port on the caddy, and the laptop started up. It recognised the disk and booted.

It's hardly an elegant solution, but it works!

It had to happen

2010-02-12T22:50:00.000+08:00

I have been venturing to set up a WiFi bridge to UWA so as to rid the household of telephone line rental and internet subscription. After talking to Mitch, he recommended me a Ubiquiti NanoStation2 Loco. This has involved me climbing on the roof for the past few nights trying to get a good SNAP (the staff/student WiFi) access point signal.

I got one, which ranges from -80 dBm to -85 dBm (I am a complete newb at all this, so do not ask me any questions). Attached to some random pole on our roof, cable run down the chimney, and hours of configuration (it should take a normal person about five minutes).

Not happy with the throughput (I get full 54 Mbps transmit, but only 2- 11 Mbps receive signals), I rang up ITS to find out where the hell this AP was, such that I could aim my WiFi bridge more accurately. It turns out it is in EECE room 2.75, which is blocked by a few trees from my pole attached WiFi bridge. I went up to the room to ascertain its exact location and line of sight to my roof.

So I climbed back up on the roof, unhinged the WiFi device, and attempted to move it to a location less obstructed by trees. Unfortunately I slipped.

Did I mention I was taking my laptop up on the roof with me, with great care. There's a service on the Loco that lets to you align the antenna to get the best signal. I set the laptop down, making sure it isn't about to slip, set up the webpage to tell me the signal strength, then move the WiFi device around incrementally. Before moving to different parts of the roof I make sure to pack my laptop back into my backpack so it doesn't fall off.

Unfortunately the area least obstructed by trees in the line of sight to the EECE SNAP AP was at the very edge of the CAT-6 cable attached to the WiFi device (it's powered over ethernet don't you know?!). This combined with a quite steep section of roofing led me to slip and fall about two metres down the roof (it's a large roof). The laptop slid further.

After climbing down, I picked up the laptop pieces and noticed the screen had cracked. Shit. I removed the hard drive and put it into an external USB caddy to see if it was still useful. It wasn't. Fuck. Luckily I am quite anal about backing up my PhD data (maybe not so much other stuff). However I'm sweating that I didn't back up my outlook .PSD file in the last couple of days.

The laptop has survived since around 200-2006, with only minor modifications (new battery, USB sound adapter, new keyboard), but it's a shame to see it die in such an avoidable way.

So now I'm looking for cheapish laptops. I'd like a MacBook Pro for aesthetics, but that can wait until I have a real job and proper disposable income. Dell seems like a good bet, but their phone support is normal office hours only (the WiFi card in the system I'm looking at only mentions 802.11n. I'd really like 802.11g as well). I might wander into JB HiFi and Officeworks tomorrow to have a look at their offerings.

In the mean time, my frugal ways have been shot in the arse (although I did stop myself adding a $240 23" full HD monitor as an accessory when speccing out the Dell (Studio 15). I'm also worried that the cheap student only Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade pack was only 32 bit, I hope I can convince them to cancel my authorisation code and give me a 64 bit one. Doubtful, as the conditions only allow for upgrading from XP or Vista.

So now I'm in my PhD office, bitching, and looking at new laptops (Lenovo, Dell and HP). I think I'll hang the old laptop screen backing up for rememberance. So much for taking the afternoon off to do household chores.

Sight - the cheapening

2010-02-08T11:15:00.000+08:00

A series of unfortunate, and self-inflicted accidents left me extremely short sighted a few weeks ago.

At some point in the past, after too vigorous dancing, my glasses fell off and one of the arms bent. I'd bought these glasses all up for around $500-$600 in the hope that they would last me many a year. As it happened, they lasted for around one year. In a fit of rage I stomped the slightly malformed ocular bionics into a twisted mess, and discarded them into the Amplifier Bar garden in disgust.

The indirectly led me to my next mistake. Not wanting to make another large investment in eyewear, I opted to buy long-lasting contact lenses. One recent morning, I discarded the contact lenses I was wearing into the bin. Due to my lackadaisical nature at the break of dawn, I did not check whether or not I had any replacement contact lenses. Alas, I did not! And as you may remember, unless you have the memory of a deranged Dario Rerio that has undergone radical lateral pallia aspiration, that meant that I was without meaningful sight.

I immediately pressed my face up to my computer monitor and ordered some new contacts. Serendipitously http://www.sixthousand.com.au/ posted a link to http://www.optical4less.com. I immediately ordered two different pairs of glasses (and was talked out of this cool pair).

One week after losing mostly usable vision (and being stuck within 20 cm of my computer monitors), my contacts arrived. Huzzah! A week later my prescription glasses arrived. Did I mention the glasses cost $AU60 delivered? Pictures below (thanks to hipikat)

For those poor lifeless souls interested, the first pair are faux Wayfarer's, and the second generic wideframe/screen.

Cheap eats

2010-02-06T13:39:00.000+08:00

As some of you have noticed, I have no sense of moderation. At the moment, the spirit of the day is frugality. For the last month I've been keeping my weekly food budget to $40 or less (admittedly not much less) per week. This includes luxuries such as V8 juice, vitamin B tablets, and fish oil tablets.

Mainly this has been achieved through judicious use of legumes (lentils, beans (baked and real), rice, tinned tomatoes, potatoes, cereal, milk and spices. So it's not all gruel :).

Unfortunately I'm running out of cheap, tasty, mostly healthy foods that I can freeze for later consumption. Today I was thinking tofu.

How much IS tofu per meal (I'm aiming to spend less than or equal to $1 per meal). And importantly, can I make it taste less like cardboard, and can I freeze the resultant meals down for future consumption?

Does anyone have any ideas/recipes/websites they would like to point me to?

Alternatively, can anyone suggest somewhere where I can get cheap cuts of meat? I'm pretty good at slow cooking various types of meat, and am not adverse to eating offal. Again, the 'cheap, tasty, mostly healthy' caveat applies.

PS. My frugality doesn't extend to my media reading habits. Today I forked out for The Monthly, The Fin, and The Oz (if only for something longer from George Megalogenis than his too infrequent/brief blogs), and The Guardian Weekly (a suggestion from Tom). I have to have something to mull over/get angry about over Sunday breakfast, right?

PPS. I just got back from the Subiaco Station Street Markets and bought some cauliflower, eggplant, and spinach (amongst other staples) (for various types of curry). Unfortunately I did not get my shit together to go to the Subiaco Farmer's Market this morning, but I'll be venturing back to Subiaco next weekend becuase the Angry Almond promised me 20 Kg of Viet jasmine style rice for $40 (I had to settle for $5 Kg at Kongs).

PPS. I've had to buy more plastic containers to hold these cooked foods in. Finally I'll have a deep freezer full of ready to eat meals with variety!

If only

2010-01-11T05:57:00.000+08:00

Our failed polity don't disappoint:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/putin-marks-10-years-of-extraordinary-achievement-20100110-m0n1.html

Such a one sided sycophancy lets the author's world view shine through.